At the precise moment when coach Mike D'Antoni, president Donnie Walsh, Madison Square Garden chairman James Dolan and others emerged from a Cleveland office tower Thursday, Johnson was hunkered down in a meeting with his agent, Arn Tellem, and Hawks officials in Los Angeles. It was the second sit-down for Johnson and the team he's played with for five seasons, and it wasn't clear what more needed to be discussed regarding Atlanta's six-year, $120 million offer -- which neither the Knicks nor any other suitor can match under NBA salary rules.

But the Knicks, trying to use Johnson as an enticement to lure James to New York, jumped back into the fray with a call to Tellem after meeting with LeBron. The Knicks are "swinging away," the source said, and "need some luck."

While it seems unlikely that Johnson would turn down the Hawks' offer, Johnson was still in play as of late Thursday afternoon, when Tellem told CBSSports.com there was not yet an agreement with Atlanta. A person familiar with the discussions said there would be "no decision" Thursday from Johnson on the Hawks' offer, which is 100 percent guaranteed, according to a source.

The Knicks will meet in Chicago Friday with the other two top free agents, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.

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Another Tellem client in demand is small forward Mike Miller, a 10-year veteran who shot 50 percent from the field for Washington last season. The Knicks met with him in Los Angeles Wednesday night along with Johnson, and the Lakers opened discussions with him Thursday. Discussions with the Lakers did not advance to the offer stage.

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Discussions between the Suns and Amar'e Stoudemire remain unresolved, with the issue being Suns chairman Robert Sarver's unwillingness to increase his offer from four years to five years. Stoudemire doesn't yet have an offer from the Knicks, but plans to meet with New York officials Saturday or Monday. Meanwhile, Channing Frye will be staying in Phoenix, where he intended to stay all along. The unrestricted free agent agreed to a five-year, $30 million deal, according to Yahoo! Sports.

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With the signing of 2008 second-round pick Nikola Pekovic to a four-year, $13 million deal and Darko Milicic to a four-year, $20 million deal, the Timberwolves are proceeding under the assumption that Al Jefferson will be traded, a person with knowledge of the team's strategy said. But with no takers yet, it is possible that the situation could drag into August, when better offers for the injury-prone power forward might be extracted.

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Anticipating the loss of Chris Bosh in free agency, the Raptors agreed to terms with unrestricted free agent Amir Johnson on a five-year, $34 million deal, a person familiar with the situation said. Johnson, a 6-9 forward who was the 56th pick by the Pistons in the 2005 draft, averaged 12.7 points and 9.8 rebounds coming off the bench last season for Toronto.

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Rudy Gay has agreed to a five-year, $82 million deal with Memphis, a move that takes the restricted free agent off the market, a person with knowledge of the agreement confirmed to CBSSports.com.

Gay had been contacted by Minnesota and was receiving significant interest from the Knicks, Nets, Bulls, Heat and Clippers -- teams flush with cap space who viewed Gay as a consolation prize if they missed out on LeBron James. Those teams could have forced Memphis' hand with a front-loaded offer sheet the Grizzlies would've had trouble matching due to luxury-tax implications. But there's no need for that after Grizzlies GM Chris Wallace's pre-emptive strike to keep him.

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Point guard Raymond Felton has been contacted by seven teams, including the three with the most cap money who also happen to be the three he's interested in: the Knicks, Heat and Nets, CBSSports.com has learned.

Felton expects to have a decision in 2-3 days, with the understanding that the teams pursuing him have to first resolve their pursuit of top-tier free agents like James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. Felton, who averaged 12.1 points and 5.6 assists for the Bobcats last season, probably won't return to Charlotte because re-signing him would push the Bobcats over the luxury tax.

The Knicks' pursuit of Felton is a strong indication of a backup plan the team is ready to carry out if it doesn't land James. Sources say team president Donnie Walsh and coach Mike D'Antoni would then try to get a quick commitment from Felton and use a legit point guard as an enticement to one of the other free agents -- Bosh or Amar'e Stoudemire. Then, the Knicks could try to add one more piece -- such as small forward Mike Miller -- before going over the cap to retain Lee, assuming they didn't have to renounce his rights to do it. If they did, the Knicks would probably have to forego one of the signings in order to fit Lee into their $34.1 million of salary-cap space.

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Minnesota's surprising four-year, $20 million commitment to Darko Milicic took them out of the Gay sweepstakes, but that didn't matter after the Grizzlies retained him with a five-year, $82 million deal Thursday. The signing of Milicic also likely removed the T-Wolves from the running for Lee, who had scheduled a visit with the Timberwolves over the weekend.

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The Magic are quietly exploring sign-and-trade scenarios that would rid the team of Vince Carter and his $17.3 million contract for next season, sources say. Short of that, team officials have indicated that they're willing to further explore more playing time for power forward Brandon Bass, who languished on the bench much of last season. The move would involve moving Rashard Lewis back to his natural small-forward. In addition to elite point guard Chris Paul, who tops his offseason wish list, Dwight Howard has told management he wants the team to pursue a post-up scorer at the power forward position. If GM Otis Smith is unable to acquire Howard's choice for that role, Carlos Boozer, the Magic could counter by utilizing Bass more than they did last season.

There are "no legs" to reports that Bass could be sent to Utah in a sign-and-trade for Boozer, a person with knowledge of Orlando's strategy said. But given Howard's preference for Boozer, it's too early to completely dismiss the scenario.

Free-Agent Buzz (UPDATE)

This thread is Gay.

Since: Dec 10, 2006

Posted on: July 2, 2010 7:33 am

Free-Agent Buzz (UPDATE)

Blazed: So everyone in High School gets treated like crap so that justifies gay comments? Or racial remarks? Or anything anyone wants to say? Most people will tell you that High School sucked for them- because they were not part of the elite 5% and they deserrved better.

Is this "gay" comment extreme? Not at all. Have we become too politically correct.. maybe but this isn't even about that. You are now 25, we are all adults- time for all of us to be a little more sensitive to others; what maybe was accepted in high school (even though it shouldn't be) gets you fired for in the real world. Plus online we tend to be more careless with our words.

Do the words gay and fag offend some? Yes it does so why is it such a big deal to keep it out of our discussions? This is about sports not race, religion and sexual orientation. 30 years ago, some would be defending the use of the "N" word in describing a certain skin color. It is great to see we have made up some ground in some areas but in others we still have a ways to go.

Since: May 18, 2009

Posted on: July 2, 2010 2:17 am

Free-Agent Buzz (UPDATE)

Trade Vince Carter back to the Raps and Hedo back to the Magic. Would love to see the Magic and Raps both stick it to Carter. Everyone loves VC...as long as he's NOT on your team.

Since: Dec 21, 2006

Posted on: July 2, 2010 12:27 am

Free-Agent Buzz (UPDATE)

Stickygreen

Lighten up...And you have gay friends, you just dont know it ;)

Since: May 31, 2010

Posted on: July 1, 2010 10:37 pm

Free-Agent Buzz (UPDATE)

So from this it looks like the Knicks will be signing Lebron, Wade, Bosh, Joe Johnson, Felton, and Mike Miller. Not a bad free agent haul.

Since: Jun 29, 2008

Posted on: July 1, 2010 9:08 pm

Free-Agent Buzz (UPDATE)

The deal with Rudy can only tell me one thing. Heisley, Wallace, and Hollins otherwise known as Larry, Curly, and Mo...WOW Please if the guys have children, I hope their wives are smart enough to take the children away until they reach the age of 30 years old to keep their minds from being contaiminated with stupidity. This much money for an average NBA player who will probabley be injured 30% of the next season. This contract only leads to the demise of the current team. Such ignornace for that amount of money....

Since: May 24, 2009

Posted on: July 1, 2010 8:44 pm

Free-Agent Buzz (UPDATE)

Rudy Congrats on the money! Now be prepared to NEVER WIN ANYTHING AS FAR AS BASKETBALL GOES!

Since: Feb 16, 2010

Posted on: July 1, 2010 8:00 pm

Free-Agent Buzz (UPDATE)

LOL @ Jim F13, I am 25 and so high school is still within fairly fresh memory for me and what you just said seems incredibly narrow minded to me. Unless you are among the say top 5% , the lucky few, who are incredibly hot and athletic and also typically a bit on the slow side, making you easier to get along with, EVERYONE gets made fun of in high school. Weather that be for the way you dress, talk, look, think or just because you where their doesn’t really matter, it happens and it happens allot. Now as time goes on the "lucky few" seems to change from popular jocks and hotties to people who are overly successful in whatever life endeavors they take on. However the percentage of the lucky population seems to shrink outside of high school down to below 1% and if you are not at the very top of whatever your field is... well then you still get maid fun of and still have to take other peoples stupid BS. IF you are REALLY lucky and work REALY hard then you get to retire early to enjoy some time with your kids/grandkids well then you just get to sit around and take shit for being over the hill. My point is that not matter what people are going to have negative things to say about you and its how you handle it not what was said that is important. Really that is the only valuable thing I learned in high school was how to take shit and how and when to sling it back.

Also if you work in the school you should be aware that with the younger generations the word fag or gay doesn’t even have a relation to ones sexual orientation anymore, just as calling some one a Mother F***er doesn’t mean that you actually think they have sex with their mom. I heard some great standup the other day went something like this "I would never call a homosexual a fag... unless he was being a fag. Like if I walked into a room with two guys sucking each other off I would say hello gentlemen unless one of them stopped and said "people from phoenix are Phoenicians" then I would say "stick that dick back in your mouth and quit being a fag.""

Basically what I’m saying is that your entire reference to high school was irrelevant and showed a fair amount of ignorance to the way kids operate and as to how you ended well… It’s called freedom of speech and if it gets to a point where people are not allowed to make puns especially one as harmless as the one everyone is in an uproar about well then that’s the day I don’t want to be called an American anymore. I mean reallythe only people who are going to be truly and deeply offended by the Rudy “Gay” joke are people who are so weak minded and insecure that it dose not really matter what you call them their probably gonna feel the same way anyhow.

Since: Dec 22, 2008

Posted on: July 1, 2010 7:52 pm

Free-Agent Buzz (UPDATE)

Those of you offended by the gay comment need to grow up and quit being so sensitive. Thats the problem with America these days, people are so quick to get offended by every little comment or just a single word. This country has turned into a bunch of sensitive pansies who get their feelings hurt at every turn. Man, our fore fathers would be embarrassed to claim a lot of poeple as descendants.

Since: Sep 28, 2007

Posted on: July 1, 2010 7:31 pm

The fool is you.

Your=Possesive You're = You are. Instead of insulting the guy maybe you should go back to 5th grade english class and get a sense of humor.